India host Peurto Rico in friendly

Mumbai: India have a good chance of upsetting higher-ranked Peurto Rico when the two sides clash for the first time in a football friendly on an untested but impressive turf at the Andheri Sports Complex here on Saturday. The team will be led by 24-year-old goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu as India embark on a mission to crack the Asian Cup qualifiers beginning March next year.

India, who have been training hard here for two sessions each day since Monday, will be used to the humid conditions here while Puerto Rico arrived only on Friday and are devoid of the required amount of practice. In fact, there is every chance the team that boarded a connecting flight via New York might fail to overcome jet lag and tiredness after a long aerial journey.

Add to this, three Puerto Rican strikers Hector Ramos, Jorge Rivera and Joseph Marrero opted not to travel to India. Ramos and Marrero are the top two all-time goal scorers for the visitors so their absence might hurt the visitors.